DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Affiliations

Jacob & Rosaline Cohn Professor of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Department of Pharmacology

International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN)

Simpson-Querrey Institute (SQI)

Lurie Cancer Center

Chemistry of Life Processes Institute (CLP)

Research Statement

The Chemical Biology of Materials: Mimicking Biomacromolecules to Control, Probe, Study and Perturb Natural Systems

The Gianneschi group is an interdisciplinary team of chemists, engineers, materials scientists and chemical biologists focused on fundamental and translational research into biomaterials, polymers, nanomaterials, in situ electron microscopy, biomimicry, therapeutics, diagnostics and novel functional materials

Selected Publications

Reviews:
Exploration of Organic Nanomaterials with Liquid-Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy. Joanna Korpanty, Nathan C. Gianneschi. Acc. Chem. Res. 2023, 56, 17, 2298–2312. DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.3c00211.

Unraveling the Structure and Function of Melanin through Synthesis. Wei Cao, Xuhao Zhou, Naneki McCallum, Zihying Hu, Qing Ni, Utkarsh Kapoor, Christian Heil, Kristine Cay, Tara Zand, Alex Mantanona, Arthi Jayaraman, Ali Dhinojwala, Dimitri Deheyn, Matthew Shawkey, Michael Burkart, Jeffrey Rinehart, Nathan Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c12322.

Insights into the Structure and Dynamics of Metal-Organic Frameworks via Transmission Electron Microscopy. Xinyi Gong, Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran, Zhijie Chen, Lee Robison, Megan C. Wasson, Kyle C. Bentz, Seth M. Cohen, Omar K. Farha, Nathan C. Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2020, 142 (41), 17224–17235. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c08773

Biomedicine:
Inhibiting the Keap1/Nrf2 Protein-Protein Interaction with Protein-Like Polymers. Kendal P. Carrow, Haylee L. Hamilton, Madeline P. Hopps, Yang Li, Baofu Qiao, N. Connor Payne, Matthew P. Thompson, Xiaoyu Zhang, Assa Magassa, Mara Fattah, Shivangi Agarwal, Michael P. Vincent, Marina Buyanova, Paul A. Bertin, Ralph Mazitschek, Monica Olvera de la Cruz, Delinda A. Johnson, Jeffrey A. Johnson, Nathan C. Gianneschi. Advanced Materials, 2024, 2311467. DOI: /10.1002/adma.202311467

Topical application of synthetic melanin promotes tissue repair. Dauren Biyashev, Zofia E. Siwicka, Ummiye V. Onay, Michael Demczuk, Dan Xu, Madison K. Ernst, Spencer T. Evans, Cuong V. Nguyen, Florencia A. Son, Navjit K. Paul, Naneki C. McCallum, Omar K. Farha, Stephen D. Miller, Nathan C. Gianneschi, Kurt Q. Lu. npj Regen Med 2023, 8, 61. DOI: /10.1038/s41536-023-00331-1.

Thrombospondin-1 Proteomimetic Polymers Exhibit Anti-Angiogenic Activity in Models of Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Choi, W.; Nensel, A. K.;Droho, S.; Fattah, M. A.; Mokashi-Punekar, S.; Swygart, D.; Burton, S. T.; Schwartz, G; Lavine, J.; Gianneschi, N. Science Advances 2023, 9 (41), eadi8534. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi8534.

Inflammation-Responsive Micellar Nanoparticles from Degradable Polyphosphoramidates for Targeted Delivery to Myocardial Infarction. Yifei Liang, Holly L. Sullivan, Kendal Carrow, Joshua M. Mesfin, Joanna Korpanty, Kendra Worthington, Colin Luo, Karen L. Christman, Nathan C. Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 20, 11185–11194. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c01054

Soft Matter:
Hydrophobic Melanin via Post-Synthetic Modification for Controlled Self-Assembly. Xuhao Zhou, Shengyi Su, Bram Vanthournout, Ziying Hu, Florencia A. Son, Kexin Zhang, Zofia E. Siwicka, Xinyi Gong, Navjit Paul, Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran, Christopher Forman, Omar K. Farha, Matthew D. Shawkey, and Nathan C. Gianneschi, ACS Nano, 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c08114

Mussel Adhesive-Inspired Proteomimetic Polymer. Or Berger, Claudia Battistella, Yusu Chen, Julia Oktawiec, Zofia E. Siwicka, Danielle Tullman-Ercek, Muzhou Wang, Nathan C. Gianneschi. J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2022, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c10936

On the Origin of Proteolytic Stability of Peptide-Brush Polymers as Globular Proteomimetics. Hao Sun, Baofu Qiao, Wonmin Choi, Nicholas Hampu, Naneki C. McCallum, Matthew P. Thompson, Julia Oktawiec, Steven Weigand, Omar M. Ebrahim, Monica Olvera de la Cruz,and Nathan C. Gianneschi. ACS Cent. Sci., 2021, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.1c01149.

Allomelanin: A Biopolymer of Intrinsic Microporosity. Naneki C. McCallum, Florencia A. Son, Tristan D. Clemons, Steven J. Weigand, Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran, Claudia Battistella, Brooke E. Barnes, Hashanthi Abeyratne-Perera, Zofia E. Siwicka, Christopher J. Forman, Xuhao Zhou, Martin H. Moore, Daniel A. Savin, Samuel I. Stupp, Zheng Wang, Gary J. Vora, Brandy J. Johnson, Omar K. Farha, and Nathan C. Gianneschi, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2021. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c00748.

Liquid-Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy:
Upper Critical Solution Temperature Polymer Assemblies via Variable Temperature Liquid Phase Transmission Electron Microscopy and Liquid Resonant Soft X-Ray Scattering. Joanna Korpanty, Cheng Wang, and Nathan C. Gianneschi. Nature Communications 2023, 14 (1), 3441. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38781-2

Rapid Generation of Metal-Organic Framework Phase Diagrams by High-Throughput Transmission Electron Microscopy. Xinyi Gong, Karthikeyan Gnanasekaran, Kaikai Ma, Christopher Forman, Xingjie Wang, Shengyi Su, Omar Farha, Nathan C. Gianneschi, J. Am. Chem. Soc, 2022, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c01095.

Direct Observation of Emulsion Morphology, Dynamics, and Demulsification. Maria A. Vratsanos, Nathan C. Gianneschi, ACS Nano, 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.2c00199

Selected Honors/Awards

• 2020    Elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)
• 2017    Finalist, Blavatnik Young Scientist Award
• 2016    Tianfu Distinguished Lecturer in Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University
• 2016    Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 2015    Outstanding Young Scientist Award, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, PAT 2015
• 2014    UC San Diego Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Postdoctoral Scholar Mentoring
• 2013    Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences
• 2012    NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award
• 2012    Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
• 2011    NIH Director’s New Innovator Award
• 2011    UC San Diego Panhellenic Outstanding Professor Award
• 2009    Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) – DOD AFOSR
• 2008    Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award